‘Heinous but not premeditated’: Allahabad High Court commutes man’s death penalty to life term in minor’s rape case

Therefore, the court said the “death penalty was liable to be commuted to life imprisonment till the natural life of convict without remission”.

The bench observed neither there was a criminal history of the man nor any evidence was brought on record to prove that the offence was committed with a pre-meditated mind.

“There is no criminal history of the convict and there is no evidence that offence was committed with pre-meditated mind, this Court is of the view that the death penalty is liable to be commuted to life imprisonment till the natural life of convict/appellant without remission,” the court said.

While commuting the trial court’s capital punishment to life imprisonment, the court said, “In a case based on circumstantial evidence, in which, offence is under Section 376 (rape) and Section 302 (murder) of IPC, though the death penalty can be awarded in the ‘rarest of rare’. But normally imprisonment for life without any remission may be awarded, unless death sentence is inevitable.”

The convict was stated to be 27 years of age, being a father of a minor himself at the time of incident.

The bench highlighted that though the trial court considered the circumstances in detail, it was done “without any report of the evaluation from the probation officer, jail administration and psychologist”.

Advocate Rajesh Kumar Dwivedi, representing the convict, argued that his client was framed in this case on account of enmity, stressing that he was not even present at the relevant place and time. He further argued that the FIR did not match with the series of the alleged events and it was lodged with an “inordinate delay”.

Government Advocate Dr V K Singh and additional government advocate Raj Deep Singh, representing the state, said that the offence was “very brutal” and the trial court had “rightly convicted and awarded the death sentence”.

Background:

According to the FIR, the incident dates back to February 16, 2021, when the girl went missing and was later found dead. Investigation revealed that the toddler was in the company of the convict before the incident.

He was convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court for the offences under Section 376 (rape), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 302 (murder) of the IPC and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Chidlren from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.